Koakai
hokoku, Issue 11, 1880, October 9 (p. 74)
Letter from
Hirobe Kuwasi (1854-1909) to three officials of 1880 Korean Mission: Yi Yongsuk,
Yi Joyŏn, Kang Wi
¡°To three esteemed teachers, Yi, Yi,
and Kang. I have read about you in newspapers before, and for the long time have
admired your glorious names. Afterwards, I reached the place of your stay [in
Tokyo] and was honored with seeing you personally. My joy was increased, as well
as my admiration for you. I am only afraid that, as a silly student crazily
attached to the Oriental [affairs], poorly talented and superficially educated,
unable to follow the past sages in practice, awkward in speaking and ignorant
about the neighboring countries, I have greatly lost your respect and behaved
inappropriately during the long-desired time of meeting with you. Still, now I
console myself with the remembrances of the sincere joy of our meeting, and at
the same time feel strongly ashamed. When I was honored with your audience last
time, you graciously did not rebuke my hastiness. For a scholar from a faraway
region, it is a great honor even to be once acquainted with you, my lords! But
you, with elegant and refined magnanimity, pardoned my vulgarity and rusticity,
and praised me. (¡¦). Thus, I intend to
offer you a plan, and beg for your attention:
Your servant has
long observed that, among the five continents, Asia is the vastest and most
populated. In antiquity, Asia was the cradle of ethics and culture, but now its
fortunes are in decline, and Europeans humiliate it. Europe is the smallest
continent, which had been a land of barbarism in the antiquity. But today, its
resplendence is growing daily, intelligence and skills match each other,
technique and arts compete in excellence, and there is no place inside the five
continents where its boats, vehicles and electrical devices did not reach. But
it does not just ¡®reach¡¯ this or that land. First, it reaps profits, then
continues with exploiting the people, and in the end ruins the country in
question. That is what had been down with the Indian states in the southeast [of
Asia], and all other cases are like that. Past days have already seen the terror
of smaller and bigger Asian states being annexed, ruined or destroyed, and today
these who did not experience it yet are being annihilated. By luck, only several
states of Eastern part of Asia are remaining independent.
What are the reasons
for that? Is it fault of Asian people? Or is it fault of Asian land? Or should
we blame the Asian Heaven? No, it is not the work of Heaven, and the land is not
to be blamed. Asian people brought the calamity themselves. It became a custom
in Asia that the states do not rely on each other, and the peoples do not assist
each other, just cultivating themselves in self-satisfied ways. [Asians of
today] closely resemble hermits, just sitting all the day long and waiting for
the hungry death to come. Alas! It is difficult to prop a big house with a
wooden plank, while one hundred-legged insect does not lean to one side. If we
wish to reverse the decline in fortunes, and defend our selves from the other
side¡¯s insults, what should we do?
Recently, the
gentlemen of lofty intentions in our country came together to establish an
organization under the name of <Rise Asia Society>. The society intends to
bring together as many superior gentlemen from all Asian lands as possible in
order to retrieve the declining fortunes, and then together enjoy the Great
Peace. It has already acquired altogether more than three hundreds members,
among them scholars, peasants, artisans and traders being represented. It
includes both governmental officials and scholars, and also officials and
subjects of Ch¡¯ing. I am also one of its members. If you, gentlemen, are
interested in it, I would like you to join the Society too, and help it. In this
connection, I respectfully present you a book of Society¡¯s regulations, and a
list of its members, as well as my <Research on Asian Languages> in nine
volumes. I will be very happy if you will deign to read it, in spite of your
busy lives. In my unpolished composition, the words do not express the
intentions fully, and the characters do not make sentences. I am again afraid of
losing the honor of your respect and committing disgraceful deeds. I beg you to
take pity on this mad fool and do not fault him for his recklessness.
Autumn sun is still
burning-hot. [I expect] the grace of your return soon. Respectfully bowing to
you,
Hirobe Kuwasi.¡±